Slashdot Mirror
Buttons That Morph Out of Your Touchscreen
kkleiner writes "Wouldn't it be awesome if our tablets and smartphones could have buttons that morphed out of the touchscreen, and then went away again when we didn't need them? It sounds like magic, but now it is reality. Created by Tactus Technology, a Fremont, California-based start-up, Tactus is a deformable layer that sits on top of a touchscreen sensor and display. 'The layer is about 0.75mm to 1mm thick, and at its top sits a deformable, clear layer 200 nm thick. Beneath the clear layer a fluid travels through micro-channels and is pushed up through tiny holes, deforming the clear layer to create buttons or shapes. The buttons or patterns remain for however long they are needed, just for a few seconds or for hours when you’re using your iPad to write that novel. And because the fluid is trapped inside the buttons, they can remain for however long without additional power consumption. They come or go pretty quickly, taking only a second to form or disappear.'"
Now this means when I break my phone I can't use the cracked screen anymore.
That is fucking amazing!!!
The author seems to think the buttons look "slick", but they look cheap and cheesy to me. A regular touch screen looks a whole hell of a lot better, in my opinion.
If ever there was a solution desperately looking for a problem, I think this is it. I'll pass on this investment, thanks.
One of the things I like about current generation smart phones/tablets is that they're very resilient to scratching, using a hardened glass screen.
This looks like a soft rubbery layer on top, so my guess is that it would be quite vulnerable to scratching and tearing.
Assuming that it could also be used to display Braille, rhis tech could probably be rather useful for tablet computers and ebook readers for the blind.
A fixed key pattern? *Weak*
... unless they can come up with a way to raise them based on a fine grid array rather than fixed cell sizes. Then it would be a truly useful technology.
Until then, I am sure a company or two will see this useful for raising a telephone keypad above the rest of the display, for example. I don't see it as more finely-controlled than that, because the screens of different devices differ so much.
Unless it were made into a grid array, it could never be a standard. For long.
This will probably replace hardware keyboards in the future.
Braille keypads are sorely needed, both on personal devices and other interactive displays such as ATM or kiosk machines. There's the half measure of having a touch screen as well as traditional physical buttons, but the experience grates compared to having a touch interface alone.
I'm having a hard time coming up with the problem this solves, outside of creating a braille touchscreen "keyboard". Obviously, the liquid needs to be transparent so you can see the touchscreen underneath, which means the buttons have to rely on icons displayed on the LCD to indicate what the button does. So, you can now have a raised button on top of an icon on a touchscreen. Please excuse me as I don't get too excited over this. This looks like a solution in search of a problem...
Started the video in TFA:
"For years, people believed the world was flat...".
Stop, close page. Great idea, ridiculous marketing.
"The only intuitive interface is the nipple."
And now we can have nipples as the interface.
--
BMO
Mobile device manufacturers spend years developing higher and higher resolution screens (retina display for example).
Users now have to look at said screen through an additional 1mm layer of plastic, a deformable, 200nm layer of plastic, and a ~1mm layer of fluid trapped in between. Not to mention that the buttons don't "simply recede away", as the article claims - if the video clip is anything to go by, the residual outline of the button sticks around long afterwards.
Nope, can't think of anything ever going wrong with moving parts.
After all these silly touch screen gimmix. Bleh.
Obviously, this is where this new technology can REALLY be useful . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Manipulating fluids is a quite efficient way to make things change shape. That is how an erection works, and (if you're not getting terribly distracted by thinking of it), you'll probably agree that also from a purely technical viewpoint it is a quite neat trick.
They seem to have addressed the issue of the third dimension, but that's only one part of what makes a button a button. Does it "click"? Is there tactile feedback? Or does a single 'brush' of a fingertip across a raised button trigger the interaction?
Buttons aren't just lumps. They're clickable, and they need to offer resistance and then "give way" in order to constitute touch feedback. I'm not seeing that here,
I've been thinking about how best something like this could be done for a while now. I was thinking maybe you could have a means to raise individual pixels to create buttons, but I've no idea about the complexities of something like that.
This looks like it could be a more elegant solution, the only questions I've got are do the buttons depress or have any kind of feedback from being pressed or is it just a bump on top of a touch screen? I'd also like to know if there's a limit to how hard you can press a button without it "bursting" or damaging it. This could be really good for mobile gaming, particularly games that work best with buttons and d-pads!
last i heard, using an iphone while you are blind is pretty annoying.
I was under the impression that Apple had already filed for a patent on this.
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
What use is it unless the 'bulges' function as buttons? You have to rest your fingers on the screen to find out where they are, and by that time you've already operated them"
But only in predetermined locations by the manufacturer.
Call me when they can make that button travel across the screen with a moving icon.
Also I really wonder how much added distortion to the visual display this adds. Notice they did not have any shots that would show you that you are looking through and can see all the spots where the buttons are. designed to be.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
That's the thing people forget about hardness is that it is a double edged sword. So they are right in their marketing that Gorilla Glass, and others like it, are very hard. So they are difficult to scratch and so on. Sounds strong... However what it really means is they are brittle. They have a higher failure point, but when they do fail they break pretty badly. For real strength, some flexibility, give, is what you actually want.
An area where you can see this is knives. Far and away most quality knives are steel, including those made for adverse environments. However a bit of research turns up that you can get advanced ceramic knives. They are much tougher, they don't need sharpening basically ever, and they are real easy to clean. Why then are these not the exclusive knives in all high end kitchens? For that matter, why aren't they the knives of choice whenever you can afford it (they are expensive)?
The reason is they are brittle, they don't bend. So they are "stronger" than steel in a sense, in that you put pressure on them that would cause a steel knife to flex and they hold fast. However you increase the pressure to a point and then they just fail, shatter, whereas the steel knife would still bend, and then come back. So they are brilliant for cutting vegetables, meats with no bones, and so on but they aren't going to replace your carving knife.
Same shit with phone screens. Ya the move from plastic to glass means that they are more resistant to minor scratches. However hard impacts, a proper plastic will do a better job of handling.
Actually, this mechanism (although realised differently) is presented in the Star Trek:TNG Technical Manual as the tactile component for the LCARS interface.
I see word of video controls and not leaving the pause button in the center of the screen has yet to hit Singularity Hub dot com.
Oh, that's right, this was posted on /. a few years ago: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/04/29/1516231/a-touch-screen-with-morphing-buttons
Heh, same thing was reported on by the same site as the current FA: http://singularityhub.com/2009/08/20/a-flexible-touch-screen-changes-surface-to-match-display/
Buttons morphing in my pocket?
Too creepy. Do not want.
I already have enough issues/complaints about device controls changing.
It sounds like a great way to add cost to your smart phone.
They don't mention what the flexible layer is, but that it is 200nm thick. For comparison your regular plastic wrap is 11um thick. That's over 50 times thicker than the layer they're putting on the screen. So lets assume it's something stronger than polypropylene. Aluminum would not be transparent (except in Star Trek), but thinking from a strength point of view the foil in your house is probably a little thicker than the plastic wrap, so lets go with the same 50x thicker than the film on these displays. Now imagine a little fluid filled bubble of aluminum foil 50x thinner than what we're used to, and think how long it is likely to last as a button on an electronic gadget.
The only hope I can imagine is if they're using something like this which is stronger than kevlar. But without any information on the strength of this thing I have to remain skeptical.
I bet blind people would love this if it could render braile.
I don't want to wait 2 seconds between each interface change on my phone. 1 second to release the current buttons. 1 second for new buttons to form. I'm sure it's all very glorious and cool the first time you see it. It's probably agonizingly boring every time thereafter.
Seems like a perfect way to get people to adopt phones like the iPhone, even though it doesn't have a physical keyboard.
It's really sad that Apple crashed like they did when they launched it, but you know it's no big wonder when you consider that they entire industry warned them again and again that consumers would never adopt a phone that didn't have tactile feedback from a physical keyboard.
Ohh wait, the rest of the industry was wrong and Apple succeeded enourmesly and everyone else followed suit. People seem to be quite content with touchscreens, so this actually solves a by now quite outdated problem that never really materialized.
Awesome... can't wait to play "pop the virtual infinite bubble wrap" app all day ;)
get up :D-< :D|-< :D/-<
<Zybl0re> get on up
<Zybl0re> get up
<Zybl0re> get on up
<phxl|paper> and DANCE
* nmp3bot dances
* nmp3bot dances
* nmp3bot dances
<[SA]HatfulOfHollow> i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I'll be so glad to be able to feel the buttons again when driving... much safer and more covert
Oh, should I have sugar-coated that?
the T-1000!
Hi guys, welcome to 2009, only it's done with air instead of fluid.
Which genius thought liquids built into electronics was a good fucking idea?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
What's new about tactile feedback touch screens? I thought the tech has existed for sometime now, but not cheap enough to bring to consumer devices yet.
It's about tactile feedback: look at the "mixing desk" flavor in the animation cycle on their front page...
I suggested something like this back in 2009 when I saw '10 gui', I thinking: pick up where haptic displays (the ones that braile users use) left off, most especially multi-display situations where one or other display might serve largely as a control device with helpful visual feedback when you need to look at it: http://kfsone.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/touchy-feely-10gui/
On a phone: you finish typing your text message and the device drops back to music player mode; the buttons morph into volume slider, play/pause/fwd/etc.
And wouldn't it be nice if you had a tactile guide to where to put your thumb to take a picture when using the phone as a camera - better yet, where NOT to put your thumb while trying to get the shot ;)
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
Nokia had a patent on this a while back: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20100315345.pdf
The Tech Bubble is back!
The Senseg tactile display uses electrostatics to create the sensation of texture on a touchscreen.
With some improvements, I suppose this could be developed into an e-reader for the blind. Braille on the go!
Touchscreen with tactile feedback! You ever try to work out (jog, lift weights, etc) with a touch screen ipod nano or touch screen ipod ? You have to LOOK at the screen in order to accurately find songs you like or skip songs, etc. kind of hard when it's strapped to your shoulder and you're on the sprinting leg of your jog. But now apple can offer media players with buttons, so I can switch songs without literally having to visually examine the interface. Actually that is a pain in the ass for most touch screen devices. I like to operate the devices without affixing my vision to the UI.
Maybe now we can have realistic looking morphing license plates.
Let those red light cameras, meter maids, and automated license plate readers be damned.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Think this is the last obstacle to a LCARS type control screen.
"Every third-party application examined by these users was worthy of criticism ranging from “this one thing is annoying” to “the whole thing is completely unusable.”"
Maybe I don't understand something, but why would anybody need such buttons?